Getting Started

To activate your Western Identity, visit the Activating Your Western Identity page.

If you receive the message "Error! This identity has already been activated.", it means your account was previously activated.  You will want to look at Resetting your Password.

Microsoft Office 365 is a powerful web-based email and calendar platform that combines a very large email quota with robust, multi-device support.

Microsoft Student Advantage

As an additional benefit, students using Office 365 have access to Microsoft Student Advantage.  This means you are able to install the full suite of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Access etc.) on up to 10 devices you own, including Macs and smartphones/tablets.  Please note that Student Advantage is only available to registered Western and Affiliate students whose email is in Office 365. 

Microsoft Office Home Use for Faculty and Staff

Existing Faculty and Staff members have access to free Microsoft Office as well through the Microsoft Home Use program.  Visit the Home Use page for more information.

Fully Integrated Email, Calendar, and Contacts

All your emails and calendar items available on all your devices.  Setting up your Office 365 account in an Activesync supported client (Outlook, Android/iOS/Blackberry devices) will set up your Email, Calendar, and Contacts all at once.

Feature-rich web interface

The new Outlook Web App has powerful new options including Facebook/LinkedIn integration, OneDrive, and online versions of Word/Excel/Powerpoint/OneNote that can be accessed from any browser.

Enhanced Reliability

Microsoft guarantees 99.9% uptime for Office 365, meaning more stability and reliability compared to Convergence.

• Email - Data is stored in Canada
• Calendar - Event data is stored in Canada
• OneDrive - Data is stored in Canada
• Teams - All data is stored in Canada except for data in the chat function*
• Any other application/services in O365 may reside outside of Canada

*Teams has superseded Skype for Business, which is now unsupported. Like Teams, Skype for Business' data is not stored exclusively in Canada.

Please note that all Office 365 usage must comply with Western's Computing, Technology & Information Resources Policy and Data Classification Standards.

The Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for Microsoft Office 365 is available under Where Does Your Data Reside? on

https://cybersmart.uwo.ca/for_it_support_providers/procedures_resources/procedures/email_management_faq.html